Unfortunately I couldn’t take up the offer of a Pit Lane Tour this time due to my work commitments (bugger hey?); however I was asked to a phone interview with Lisa Lilley, Shell Technology Manager for Ferrari.
This is very much related to what Lisa & I discussed in 2009, for a bit of a refresh – CLICK ME!!!
So this time around I had a few questions lined up for the phone interview. The phone interview consisted of the following people:
- Adam Hunt, Account Manager @ Edelman - He made this possible
- Lisa Lilley, Shell Technology Manager for Ferrari
- Adam Birdseye, SAU-Vic Newsletter Editor or… “Birds” as most of you would know him (don’t worry, he was on strict orders not to argue
)- Ash Cosgriff (Myself
), SAU Admin, Vic Club President - loved and/or hated by all.I’ve painted the background and hopefully you’ve read 2009’s article… Onto the challenges of 2010 for Ferrari & Shell.
Answers to the below questions reported speech of discussions, unfortunately due to time constraints I could not copy everything down word for word and use direct quotes
Ash…
1. Lisa, given the FIA’s changing of the refuelling situation, what has been the biggest impacting factor with the refuelling ban for Shell & Ferrari?
a. What effect(s) have the refuelling restrictions had on Shell V-Power fuel?
b. I notice the fuel formulation space has become wider, I know this was a restricting factor in past years and certainly in 2009 when we spoke....
Has the formulation widening had a big impact on what you can now do with the fuel?
There were two clear challenges that the 2010 season brings. The big one would be no refuelling. The second would be fuel composition.
These changes we knew about in 2009 and have been working on them in earnest from around July 2009.
Refuelling obviously poses issues surrounding fuel temperature as over the course of a race the temperature will be higher than that of previous seasons where top-up’s are allowed.
Fuel composition rules are now far less restrictive due to the refuelling ban.
So whilst not as significant as the ban, it’s created a whole new set of challenges as there are far less restrictive composition requirements.
This is the most significant change to fuel specifications in 15 years and has really opened up the door for major redevelopment and experimentation with fuel composition.
Shell has worked closely with FOFAP since the middle of 2009 to come up with better fuel spec.
Two main reasons – no refuelling was on the horizon, taken out density and distillation specs, allows better fuel economy.
More formulation space, more room to play. What we learn from Formula 1 inevitably filters down to all other areas of motorsport where Shell V-Power is used.
Also a change is the fuel ratings. 2010 see’s F1 using the American system now which is known at the Anti-Knock Index.
AKI = (RON +MON)/2 Minimum being 87.
Further detail about the specific fuel regulations in 2010 can be found HERE!!!
4. How have the higher temperatures affected the entire fuel formulation for 2010?
a. Have additional fuel cooling methods been employed? (ie fuel coolers/heat dissipation)
Firstly fuel coolers and so on are banned in F1, so teams had to make do with ducting around fuel tanks, extra insulation of the tanks.
The temperatures our fuels gets too – can’t answer that one… but what I can say is that surprisingly, it’s not as high as we expected it to be.
This is due to the extra insulation and ducting that’s been employed by Ferrari to keep temperatures under control.
So the overall net effect is there, however nowhere near as impactful as first thought suggested, a testament to excellent design work initially within the limitations that were given.
5. The balance of economy and power is always a fine line for race teams. What are the effects for you in 2010?
a. Has power risen/fallen?
b. Has economy risen/fallen?
6. As car minimum weights have been increased by 15KG’s (605KG -> 620KG), is this basically all taken up by high fuel volume/amount?
7. Just how much fuel do the cars carry in 2010 VS previous years?
I can’t comment on exact fuel volumes or overall car weights VS fuel loads.
However given the car minimum weights have increased, you could speculate as to there that might have gone.
One thing to consider is that no teams are running KERS this year, even though the option is there.
So given Ferrari was running KERS in 2009, there has been an advantage in that the weight of KERS is now removed VS the extra fuel required to carry & car min weight.
Other teams have potentially had to deal with additional minimum weight requirements as they were not running KERS.
8. Are there any down stream effects that street users of Shell V-Power might see? (refer to 2009 article where a F1 car would run on normal V-Power without much of a drama).
What we learn from the Shell & Ferrari F1 partnership inevitably filters down to all forms of motorsport and street applications of fuels, V-Power and so on.
Due to fuel spec requirements being very much relaxed it’s given so much room for development and a very steep learning curve for R&D.
What we’ve learned here in testing the varying components and effects will improve all Shell fuel products across the board without a doubt.
Thanks to Shell, Ferrari & Edelman for this opportunity.
Looks like with all this development going on, as street users running V-Power fuel, this is nothing but great news – it could only get better for us which is what we want!
Adam also had some questions, those and responses will come out in the SAU-Vic Newsletter in coming weeks.
Cheers
Ash Cosgriff
SAU Admin & SAU-Vic President.
